Top 10 Drone Albums Of 2009

I wasn't going to do a Top 10 list this year. I figured my Top 1 list was sufficient because that was so clearly the one thing that made such a life changing impact on me. But then the fine folks of Weirdo Records asked me to make a Top 10 for them. I couldn't turn them down, obviously, and it was an excuse to do something that I really wanted to do all along. I love making lists. And people love reading them. I don't know why I withheld from something that everyone so clearly wanted.

Once I made my list for Weirdo, though, I realized that about 75% of it was comprised of drone records. So to make things more interesting, I decided to make a Top 10 list of just drone records.

Links go to original reviews. Please check out the other lists at Weirdo because that's where this originally came from. Now, onto the heckling!


10. Gregg Kowalsky's Tape Chants (Kranky)
Minimal long form tape drone meant for deeeep sleep and/or meditation and/or my favorite kind of parties.


9. Nicholas Szczepanik's The Chiasmus (Sentient Recognition Archive / Basses Frequences)
Enormous drone, fills your house/head with wonderful smooth tones, mostly of the euphoric variety.


8. Ophibre's Approaching The Ionized Piezo Kiosk (Earjerk)
Simultaneously melancholic and blissful drone tearing you in two for a half hour. Literally stunning.


7. Keith Fullerton Whitman's Dream House Variations (Arbor)
4 tapes of differing length meant for simultaneous play and manual fucking around (fast forwarding, speed manipulation, etc) is encouraged. This is just fucking brilliant. Oh, and the music's great too.


6. Acre's Isolationist (Isounderscore)
Even though two of the three tracks on this were previously released (though unheard by me and therefor irrelevant), the brand new track is awesome enough to warrant being in everyone's top 10 list. It's the densest, warmest, drone ever and came right in time for winter.


5. Usputuspud's Live In The Shit (The Nafs)
Murky drone disco. That's why.


4. The Golden Sores' A Peaceable Kingdom (BloodLust!)
This is where drone is going. The is the new drone of the future. Everything about this record is utterly fantastic. Chill ambient style, guitar psych feedbackage, and everything else. This is how it's done.


3. Mountains' Choral (Thrill Jockey) (motherfuckers deleted my fucking review)
Unbelievably amazing ambient naturey organic drone. So life affirming. Put this record on and your stress is instantly zapped. Motherfuckers deleted my fucking review, so here's the same label approved mp3 I put up the first time.
Mountains - Choral



2. Jason Crumer's Walk With Me (Misanthropic Agenda)
This is the noisiest drone record I've heard all year. Sometimes it gets almost unbearably rowdy but it's the kind that gives you chills. The final two songs are probably the best sequenced tracks of the year.


1. Eluvium's Life Through Bombardment (Temporary Residence Limited)
This takes the number one spot with ease. Every Eluvium album on vinyl for the first time. It's like hearing each record anew and in the proper way. Plus, have you seen the packaging on this beast? It's gorgeous and epic. It's a fuckin BOOK. And it's personalized. TRL really went for broke on this and it's absolutely worth every penny.

The Golden Sores - A Peaceable Kingdom (Bloodlust, 2009)

The Golden Sores - Klonopin


Alright guys. This is it. The one you've been waiting for. The drone record to come from some new band you've never heard of and completely kick every other drone record's ass. And where did they come from? Chicago. Duh.

By now, everyone has become supersaturated with drone. It seems like every kid these days is mashing the keys on their thrift store synth and burning it onto a CD-R in about as much time as it takes me to eat my morning bowl of Kashi's Honey Sunshine. But The Golden Sores know the virtue of patience and quality. This is their second record (the first, Ashdod To Ekron, I reviewed on diskant and is available as a free download) and sweet Jesus they've already made their masterpiece. I mean, Ashdod was amazing and all, but where the hell are they gonna go after A Peaceable Kingdom? I can't really imagine them making anything better.

The drone on Kingdom is made of the kind of heavenly tones that are essentially instrumentless. It could be coming from a guitar or a synthesizer (and, in fact, comes from both) but you'd never know and it doesn't even fucking matter. It's the kind of unwavering/wavering blissful static that keeps you turning up the volume every 2 or 3 minutes as your ears adjust, gently demolishing your eardrums.

I can't heap enough praise upon The Golden Sores and what they're doing for the drone community. Not only are they showing all the impostors how it's fucking done but they're giving us euphoria seeking music obsessors some of the highest quality shit out there. This record is so good the Sores could break up right now and it would hardly even matter.

Coolest thing EVER sidenote: I literally screamed and blushed like a little girl when I saw that I'm in the thank you list on this record. It consists of about 15 names and I'm one of them. I assume it's because I reviewed their first record but whatever the reason, I've only felt this cool once before in my life (when Aidan Baker knew who I was). So, yeah, if you're reading this Sores, thanks for the thanks. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

Final note: I just realized that my review of A Peaceable Kingdom is strikingly similar to my review of Ashdod To Ekron. I think, if anything, this is a good sign. I'm happy to know my opinions are steadfast and that The Golden Sores have thus far been consistently awesome in all the right ways.

The Golden Sores - Ashdod To Ekron (Drone Cowboy, 2008)

The Golden Sores - Arphaxad


Ashdod To Ekron is an hour long densely layered drone epic that travels to all the right places and consistently takes your breath away.

Full review on diskant.


I think I'm developing a new policy here on AGB. If something is out of print or generally unavailable to the average person, I see no reason not to share. And I'm pretty sure all 100 copies of Ashdod To Ekron are sold out so...

Check yo'self